Photography by Gold & Goose
MoviStar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo clicked off lap, after improving lap on a wet Sepang International Circuit in Friday’s second MotoGP practice session and ended the session the fastest rider in preparation for Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix. Lorenzo’s 2:14.503 was 0.242 seconds faster than second-place Marc Marquez on the factory Repsol Honda. Marquez’ teammate Dani Pedrosa ended the treacherous session in third, 1.079 seconds off Lorenzo’s time; however Pedrosa ultimately left with the best time of the day, having clocked a 2:01.379 earlier in the day in a dry FP1.
A downpour flooded part of the circuit and caused FP2 to be red flagged and delayed about a half hour. Brits Redding and Smith were the first two riders to head out on the still very wet track when the session opened and eventually most other riders followed.
A couple of different riders led the session in the early going, when the track still had standing water in parts, but it was Lorenzo who came to the front and then simply bettered his own time for the bulk of the session. Even though the track was drying for the entire session, a partially dry line only formed very late and all the riders completed the session on rain tires.
“At Phillip Island it was a really difficult race,” Lorenzo said. “but despite all of the problems that we’ve suffered during the race we still managed to get another podium. I look forward to racing at Sepang, it’s a nice track. Maybe it’s not the best place for our bike but we know this circuit really well because we usually do some testing here during the pre-season. It’s always tricky to race in Malaysia because of the weather conditions, but even if it’s rainy the grip at the circuit is not so bad. I would like to be competitive again, especially because I want to fight for the second place in the championship. Personally, I’m feeling well and I’m in a good physical shape so we can be optimistic for this weekend.”
Andrea Dovizioso, Aleix Espargaro and Hector Barber rouned out the top six in FP2. America’s sole entry Nicky Hayden finished the session in ninth.
In spite of the challenging conditions only one rider crashed in FP2. With about five minutes remaining Andrea Iannone crashed and appeared to be holding his left arm as he was assisted off the track by marshals. He was running seventh in the order at the time.
With the unpredictable weather of the tropical Malaysia, there was more urgency in the wet FP2 session than you would normally see for a wet Friday session.
MotoGP FP2 Results from Sepang, Malaysia – Friday, Oct. 24, 2014
1 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 303.6 2’14.503
2 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 300.5 2’14.745 0.242 / 0.242
3 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 297.2 2’15.582 1.079 / 0.837
4 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 292.6 2’16.231 1.728 / 0.649
5 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 302.7 2’16.374 1.871 / 0.143
6 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 294.2 2’16.693 2.190 / 0.319
7 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 289.2 2’16.706 2.203 / 0.013
8 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Pramac Racing Ducati 280.2 2’16.793 2.290 / 0.087
9 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Drive M7 Aspar Honda 295.2 2’16.868 2.365 / 0.075
10 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Ducati Team Ducati 302.6 2’16.906 2.403 / 0.038
11 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing Honda 301.5 2’17.259 2.756 / 0.353
12 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 311.3 2’17.384 2.881 / 0.125
13 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Drive M7 Aspar Honda 291.4 2’17.411 2.908 / 0.027
14 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 296.9 2’17.434 2.931 / 0.023
15 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 296.4 2’18.022 3.519 / 0.588
16 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 307.4 2’18.043 3.540 / 0.021
17 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 293.7 2’18.544 4.041 / 0.501
18 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 290.6 2’18.662 4.159 / 0.118
19 70 Michael LAVERTY GBR Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 287.2 2’19.151 4.648 / 0.489
20 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Octo IodaRacing Team ART 291.7 2’19.301 4.798 / 0.150
21 45 Scott REDDING GBR GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 293.5 2’19.726 5.223 / 0.425
22 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Avintia 291.7 2’20.725 6.222 / 0.999
23 23 Broc PARKES AUS Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 275.0 2’20.781 6.278 / 0.056
